The Mississippi State volleyball team is still undefeated after a second consecutive tournament championship. After winning its own Maroon Classic two weekends ago, the team took the title in the UTA Maverick Invitational last weekend.
The Bulldogs defeated UT-Pan America and Louisiana Tech in straight sets before defeating host UT-Arlington in four sets to claim the title.
Junior Caitlin Rance led the team with 47 kills for the weekend while senior libero Kayla Woodard finished with a team high 62 digs. Both Rance and Woodard were named to the All-Tournament team.
In the final game of the tournament, Rance had a career high 25 kills with a hitting percentage of .379. Head coach Jenny Hazelwood said lots of practice went in Rance’s impressive show.
“She’s just growing everyday as a player and understanding how good she is,” Hazelwood said. “There were times last weekend were she was literally unstoppable.”
Rance does not take all the credit for her success. Instead, she said freshman Iwa Belisario, who was on the back row for all three of Rance’s front row rotations, greatly helps her by telling her where to hit the ball.
“My teammates were helping me, and they were behind me, telling me where to hit and what to do,” Rance said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”
Rance is not the only player who is being noticed for her success. Woodard, who is the 12th State player to reach the 1,000 dig mark, was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week, while freshman setter Paris Perret was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the second week in a row. Hazelwood said she was proud of the pair.
“I’m thrilled that Kayla and Paris have been honored for their outstanding play on the court by the Southeastern Conference,” Hazelwood said. “They’ve both played such huge roles in helping us get off to a great start and win our first two tournaments.”
The team’s 7-0 start is the best since the 2005 season. Woodard credits the team chemistry for their success this season.
“I feel like we have good team chemistry right now,” Woodard said. “We’re working really hard; I don’t know that we’ve ever worked this hard in the preseason, throughout the summer, and all during two a days.”
However, not all things are positive. The Bulldogs lost junior captain Faith Steinwedell for the season due to an ACL injury in the Maroon Classic. Hazelwood said it is tough to lose someone who is both a strong player and a great leader.
“We told the girls that your bodies are amazing, and when the body loses one of its major senses, the other ones get stronger,” she said. “We told them everybody needs to get stronger, and then they did that last weekend.”
The team has four more games before SEC play begins. The Bulldogs travel to Illinois this weekend to take on Southeast Missouri State, South Florida, and Southern Illinois in the SIU Saluki Invitational, for what Hazelwood said will be a challenging weekend.
After this tournament, the Bulldogs play at Southern Miss, before opening up SEC  play at Ole Miss on Sept. 19. Hazelwood said she is excited to see the team’s success continue as the season progresses.
“I knew going into this season how strong we were,” Hazelwood said. “It’s not a surprise to me, but what I’m excited about now is seeing how much further this team can take that confidence. Continuing to build that confidence especially through this non-conference schedule is going to give us that much more, not just confidence going into SEC play, but we’re gonna be better because we’re working hard everyday and we know that the things we do work.”